Origin

Philip Janet Maybe was born into a rich family of trouser manufacturers, with his Mother's side of the family (the Yess') owning the company that was supplying Justice Department.

Never wanting to stand out, PJ made sure to pretend to be below average in intelligence, often acting vacant and distracted and even going as far as to never learn how to properly spell or write. In reality however PJ was already a genius from a very young age, but was completely amoral, happily killing anyone at a whim if he thought it would help him to get what he wanted.

His psychopathic tendencies started to surface when he decided to murder his Grandfather and Uncles to secure their business and wealth to his Mother, who was the next in line.

The character's middle name, Janet came about because his parents wanted a girl.

Creation

PJ Maybe was created by writers John Wagner and Alan Grant and artist Liam Sharp in 1987, his first appearance was in 2000AD issue #534 in a story named "Bug".

Major Story Arcs

Early life and arrest

PJ Maybe started off his criminal life at 12 years old by murdering some neighbours as a practice run. To do this he used a poison-administering robot of his own creation pushed through their letterbox.

Judge Dredd was placed in charge of the investigation but Maybe was not caught, his young age and seeming ignorance made Dredd disregard him as a possible suspect.

PJ then went ahead and murdered his Uncles and Grandfather. To do this he used a range of methods, from sabotaging hovercars, to re-using his poison robot, to using a drug he had synthesized called SLD-30 (a drug which made anyone who took it highly susceptible to suggestion, even allowing PJ to tell them to kill themselves, or kill others for him). On top of the murders of the Yess', PJ murdered a love rival who had been bullying him, his actions also caused the deaths of many bystanders too.

PJ was eventually caught when trying to frame a rival trouser company executive who's company had taken over the lucrative Justice Department trouser contract. PJ was still a minor at this stage, and was diagnosed as psychotic, so he was sent to an insane asylum.

Escape

Some time later the disaster known as Necropolis hit Mega-City One, with the Dark Judges attacking and taking control of the city. In the mayhem and confusion PJ Maybe managed to escape his compromised mental hospital. Making his way home he found that his parent had committed suicide.

Luckily for PJ some family friends, the Urchisons phoned whilst he was home, asking if the Maybe family would like to share their shelter with them. PJ agreed to this, not mentioning that his parents were already dead, then when the Urchison's son arrived he murdered him and left for the shelter.

At the shelter PJ Maybe told the Urchisons that their son and his parents had been killed by the Dark Judges on the way there, and he moved into the shelter with the Urchisons.

As time went on PJ started to use the Urchison family's Face Changing Machine to slowly alter his facial features to look more like the Urchison's son, he murdered the mother, and played on the father's poor mental state to fully take the place of the dead Urchison son once Necropolis was over.

Rise to Mayorship

After some time, and many murders, imprisonments, and escapes later, PJ managed to kill and replace the respected philanthropist Byron Ambrose, who had been away from Mega-City One for many years.

Using Byron's wealth and popularity PJ decided to run for Mayor. By murdering, framing, and discrediting his competition PJ was eventually triumphant and became Mayor of Mega-City One.

After years of his Mayorship, creating many social reforms and working on improving the efficiency of Mega-City One's daily running PJ Maybe had become the most popular Mayor in the history of the city.

Unfortunately for PJ, his run was interrupted by a Judge named Sinfield's own plotting. At this stage Sinfield himself had tricked and cheated his way into the office of Chief Justice of Mega-City One, and had successfully had Dredd and his supporters sent out of the city. Sinfield threatened to have PJ removed as Mayor if he did not drastically reduce his budget (not realizing that he was talking to a notorious serial killer). Angry at Sinfield's posturing PJ decided to simply murder him.

PJ infected Chief Judge Sinfield with Harrisburg Fungus using a latex glove infected with the spores. Harrisburg Fungus is a fatal, and extremely painful illness. Unfortunately for PJ, after a lot of pain and suffering the Chief Judge managed to fight the illness due to a natural resilience. Whilst in recovery PJ sent one of his small robots to infect him with Mettycylin-resistant pustulating radpox, a bacteria that is common in the hospitals of Mega-City One, this too ultimately failed.

Scared that someone was attempting to kill him, Chief Judge Sinfield ordered Judge Dredd's return to the city and put him in charge of discovering his would be assassin.

By the time of his third attempt on Sinfield's life PJ had grown frustrated and reckless, he sent his robot, altered to look like Judge Hershey to Sinfield's room to simply kill him. This time Dredd was on the scene and he destroyed the robot and saved Chief Judge Sinfield's life.

The jig was up for PJ, as the robot could be tracked back to him, but not wanting to give up his position as Mayor he decided to attempt to talk his way out of it. Whilst initially unsuccessful the Judges did not give up and eventually they found the needed evidence against him, he then confessed everything.

In custody PJ spoke to Judge Dredd about Chief Judge Sinfield, making a variety of allegations against him and telling Dredd that he was certain Sinfield cheated his way into office. Dredd looked into it without believing it to be true, but eventually found that everything PJ had said was correct. Sinfield was taken into custody and sent to Titan, a prison colony for bad Judges.

Due to his importance in outing Judge Sinfield, PJ Maybe was given leniency and did not receive the death penalty, getting life imprisonment instead, he soon escaped again and is still at large.